Five ways women sabotage their careers

Despite possibly having a successful career with numerous promotions, women can be their own worst enemies by sabotaging their success at work. Women often harbor self-defeating thoughts without thinking about the consequences or the messages they send to others who can influence their career opportunities.

According to a Pew Research Center survey of 2,002 adults, women of all ages, just like men, want a secure job they enjoy, but they are less likely than men to ask for raises or aspire to top management jobs. This can be a result of being a working parent or viewing the workplace as a man’s world.

Women currently hold 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions and 4.9 percent of Fortune 1000 CEO positions based on the findings from Catalyst, a nonprofit research group. Regardless of your position at work, self-defeating behaviors will take your career off track, however it is never too late to change and take care of yourself.

Five ways women sabotage their success:

Being overly self-critical. Highly successful women can easily lean toward setting high expectations of themselves by being perfectionists. Even if they excel in their careers, there can be a tendency to expect more of themselves than others. Over time, having a perfectionist approach of not letting go will hamper their ability to grow.

Difficult in delegating. If not careful, women can assume a care-taking role and instead of delegating workloads, they can assume responsibility for everything. Overwhelmed and overworked leads to fatigue and inefficiency. When you over-commit to projects instead of delegating, you hamper your ability to concentrate on the larger picture.

Procrastination. Avoiding unpleasant tasks such as giving performance appraisals or making decisions that create conflict unwittingly create more anxiety due to the self-blame it usually creates over time. Avoidance leads to blocked creativity that prevents you from using all of your capabilities.

Misunderstanding politics at work.Corporate politics that are conducted in the right way can simply mean developing good relationships with people throughout the organization. Companies’ value people who get along well with others even if you have strong interpersonal skills and detest politics your misunderstanding can cause you to miss promotions.

Failing to prioritize personal goals. Women are often compelled to take care of others, the needs of the department, team members and projects before they take care of their own personal development goals. Learning how to prioritize your time and invest in your growth is important in maintaining career longevity rather overcommitting by attending every meeting and participating in every company event.

Women can find more career satisfaction and enjoy their careers if they keep watch on these areas that sabotage their success.